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Ashe County authorities are trying to figure out what a Nash County woman was doing inside a utility building on the property of a Baldwin area church. The woman was found at Helton United Methodist Church just off N.C. 194—a woman who died en route to the hospital. 60 year old Judith Rose Zuege
was found unconscious in the utility building by church members around 5 p.m. Tuesday, and she died while en route to Ashe Memorial Hospital for treatment of apparent hypothermia. Her husband reported that the Rocky Mount woman got lost after taking her daughter to college in Staunton, Va., planning to head to the Outer Banks after dropping her off, but she apparently got lost, spent Monday night in Bristol Tennessee, then headed east, ending up in Ashe. Sheriff James Williams said it appeared the woman died of exposure, but that she also had a seizure type of condition and may have become disoriented. The preliminary autopsy indicates the cause of death was hypothermia according to Sheriff Williams, but the investigation is still open, and the State Bureau of Investigation has been requested to help with the investigation. Zuege’s car was found at the church, according to the report.